The final round of the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship is underway!

Wrapping up round 8, Jennifer Shahade and Macauley Peterson talk about the revolutions in yesterday's games, especially a suprising win by 17-year-old GM Robert Hess over GM Yury Shulman:



The first board today is Akobian and Hess, which is certainly the game to watch here in the final round; however, there are several pairings, such as Kamsky and Ehlvest, Onischuk and Robson, and certainly Nakamura and Friedel, which could all change the tides at any moment. Friedel spoke about his game yesterday, and while he can't pull off the tournament win, and said he' love to see Robson win.

One of the best things about this tournament is the number of younger or less experienced players who have gotten to test their mettle against the masters and legends of U.S. chess. We'll see how those pairings turn out in the last hours.

Students from two St. Louis schools that utilize the "Classroom Chess" curriculum developed by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis experienced the thrill of playing chess at the same tables in the same room where the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship is taking place. Championship competitors were taking their rest day Friday.

Fourth-grade students from City Academy squared off against King of Glory Lutheran School in south St. Louis at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The King of Glory team won and was awarded a trophy.

The children were given a tour of the facility and instructed about tournament etiquette and how to use tournament clocks. The students not only were able to play their games at the U.S. Chess Championship competition tables, but got to see the action on the closed-circuit televisions at the Chess Club.

Classroom Chess is a fourth grade through sixth grade curriculum developed by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The students participate in Classroom Chess for one hour each week for nine weeks.

Back at Round 8 of the Championship today, Kamsky and Onischuk are paired on Board 1, and Robert Hess is facing Yury Shulman. Aside from the usual suspects, much attention seems to be on Hess as the rising star, and Michael Brooks looking toward his GM norm but pitted against Hikaru Nakamura, who has been tearing through the tournament.

Nakamura is commenting on his game right now, after defeating Akobian here in the 7th round.

At this point in the 7th round, Nakamura and the surprise challenger, 17 year old Robert Hess, are tied at the top with 5 points. This is the win Nakamura was looking for, and Josh Friedel falling to Hess means Nakamura won't likely face some of his stiffest competition in the Championship.

Nakamura mentions that he'd rather play a straight round-robin, while Sutovsky mentions that the Swedish setup is more interesting for the audience. Tomorrow, Nakamura will take his rest day to really relax and root for the Cardinals.

"It was a must win game," said Nakamura.

www.uschesschamps.com has released the two newest Video Diaries from GM Elect Robert Hess and Irina Krush. Really great, interesting conversations with these two!

Author: Ken West, CCSCSL Championship Blogger


Shulman v Kamsky ROUND 3 Photos available HERE.

Quite a treat for those of us here and listening online. Both Shabalov and Lawton were in the room together analyzing their game, in which Shabalov played the ALEKHINE! Lawton said he made a mistake when he didn’t play b3 soon enough. He said he should have played it a move sooner to prevent d5 by Shabalov. That was the move he was referring to earlier today when he said he played some moves out of order.

It was also interesting as Shabalov went over several options, including lines where Lawton would have had the advantage.

Sutovsky also whipped out a couple of options that showed other possibiities where Lawton could have equalized.

The next two players to face the heat were Shankland and Kachiyan, who agreed to a draw. Sutovsky asked why, and Kachiyan asked him who he thought was better in the position and asked how he would proceed. Sutovsky thought Shankland had the advantage and should carry on.

Shankland defended taking the draw, even though he had the two bishops vs. Knight/bishop. He said no one has given him more trouble than Kachiyan. He said he was afraid if he pressed it, he could lose the thread and give up at least the half point for the draw. He said in the final position he thought he had a slight pull, but didn’t know where to go with his position in the final setup.

Shankland also defended his move, saying this draw would give him more time to prepare for tomorrow’s round. When Shahade asked him about dividing his time between chess and homework, he said his lawyer told him not to answer...Apparently his mother expects school work to be done! Hear that all you young players?

Now with the Kamsky-Shulman draw, Hess needs to beat Nakamura to remain the only person to have a shot at the Fischer prize, a $64,000 prize to the person who goes a perfect 9-0. With 14 rated over 2600, that seems to be out of reach. Nakamura has two pawns on the c file that Hess is having to use a bishop to blockade.

Looks like there is still a lot of chess to be played tonight.

Gata Kamky just left the analysis room. Unfortunately I didn’t hear that as I was here in  the next room. But as he was leaving I said to him, “It looks like you didn’t want to settle for the draw.”

“I always play to win,” he said.

That’s what I like, a fighter.